Sunday, 19 April 2015

When the Pills Don't Work

Hey, have you ever taken a pill expecting it to work ... but it doesn't? How many times have you kept on taking that pill because the package insert, your prescribing doctor, and your pharmacist tells you that it sometimes takes weeks before you feel the effects?

Pill after pill ... day after day ... holding on to feel the effects.

Looking back with a clear mind I see that for me, pharmaceutical antidepressants were more about placebo effect than medicinal effect. I remember walking back to work from the pharmacy after my benefits finally took effect, and thinking, "okay ... I'm good now ... everything is gonna be ok." I was so sure that the key to my contentment was in those little pills in this crisp white bag. They cost me mere dollars that time, though last time they cost me over $40. And that was cheap! I was 'lucky' then that I finally found ONE PILL instead of having to pay for a cocktail of pills the way I did for years and years.

Rhetorical newsflash: I hate most of Big Pharma.

Why? Because over the years, I have given those fukkers too much of my money!

For me, being on antidepressants was like having a gaping head wound that doesn't hurt anymore.
But it's still there.
You still know it's there.
Yet whenever something touches it, it's numb.

So is this seemingly incurable depression just a 21st century side effect? What the hell did people do before? Well in other parts of the world where pharma hasn't infiltrated, the people used and still use plants and fungi and the compounds therein to treat their depression and traumas.

I just finished reading about how CNN journalist Amber Lyon treated her anxiety from years of submersion journalism in very dangerous places.

One word: Psychedelics

Cue the peace signs and the tie-dye ~ make way for the well researched info. It seems that google is all but overflowing with studies ... YES STUDIES ... proving the safety of many psychedelics. You should read her story How Psychedelics Saved My Life.

Now I wouldn't really say I myself am into this array of medicinal plants, but I know about them. Sitting on my coffee table half read is the book "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley, in which Huxley describes in first person the effects of Mescalin. Aldous himself it is said, believed that perhaps plants could bridge the gap between human and the divine~whomever that may be.

Let's look back at my numbed gaping head wound. We know how the pills 'treated' it. How would psychedelics treat that head wound?

According to Amber, during her first session with a psychedelic tea called Ayahuasca which is made from the leaves of a perennial shrub called Chacruna, she immediately saw a brick wall with the word "anxiety"spray-painted on it.

So for one, in this instance and in many others, psychedelics simply ADDRESS the issue rather than numbing it or covering it up. The process from which healing comes is a painful one. This is almost always true. That head wound is no different. It needs to be scrubbed out. The old, dead, and unrelenting memories that keep you down, need to be brought out and rehashed, reviewed, re-experienced. It's gonna hurt. Nothing great comes without a little pain. But pharma doesn't want you to know that.

How many of us go to the doctor with the inability to sleep because one of these nagging memories wants out? And how many times does your doctor simply give you a sleeping pill?
Too many times.

These memories come out in your dreams and in your unconscious thoughts because the brain wants them dealt with. Keeping memories in that vault so many of us keep, hinders the ability of our brains to work properly on a daily basis.

Now I'm not suggesting anyone go out and score some zoomers, pop some peyote, or down some shaman tea. What I'm suggesting is that we all look at how the pills 'treat' our ills. Or in my case, don't treat them. I'm suggesting that you make friends with google. I'm suggesting you check out Amber's new site called reset me. Why the quirky name? Because the abilities of psychedelics to purge one's psyche of fears, trauma, stress disorders, depression and other ailments has been noted by several experts and frequent users. One well known author and Ethnobotanist named Terence McKenna likened psychedelic therapy to "hitting the 're-set' button on your internal hard drive".

It seems many looking to psychedelics for therapy do so in a multi-session way. As you may have read in her story, Amber did seven sessions with the Ayahuasca tea and five sessions with Psilocybin mushrooms. And it cured her PTSD and anxiety symptoms.

While your doctor and so many of the 'expert's in the field of medicine want you to stick with the pills. Give them a chance to get working. Hold on til you feel the effects.

Pill after pill ... day after day ... for all of the days to come.

Or you could look into something that our great great ancestors used and really heal yourself.